Province denies Elections Alberta’s request for $13.5 million to handle recall petitions
As rumblings emerge that more members of the governing United Conservative Party caucus will be the target of recall petitions, the province has denied a funding increase request from the office that handles them.
As of Tuesday, two members of the Alberta legislature are facing a citizen-led petition to recall them from their jobs.
A petition was launched last week to recall Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides. The applicant has alleged the minister is failing as the MLA for Calgary-Bow by undermining the public education system.
On Monday, chief electoral officer Gordon McClure told a legislature committee a second recall campaign has also been approved for United Conservative member and Airdrie-East MLA Angela Pitt, who also serves as deputy Speaker of the legislature.
Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally told reporters last week he was aware of more than a dozen campaigns. McClure didn’t say if other recall applications have been filed.
McClure asked the committee for an additional $13.5 million in budget funding, as verifying these petitions and other potential referendum initiatives requires additional staff and resources.
“It is worth mentioning the recall process and verification activity coincides with the two citizen initiative verification processes,” McClure said.
Former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk has filed a petition and wants a policy stating Alberta will never separate from Canada.
A second policy initiative that wants the province to cease funding private schools is in the signature collection stage.
McClure’s total funding request was ultimately shut down by the UCP majority-held committee, which approved additional support of $1.45 million.
McClure said the $13.5 million requested was “crucial for my office to maintain a state of functionality and readiness.”
He told the committee his current budget hadn’t accounted for recall petitions being approved and that seeing each application from start to finish would cost roughly $1 million per application.
Nolan Dyck, the United Conservative legislature member who put forward the reduced funding amount, said he didn’t think the government should provide more money to help McClure’s office handle the recalls, as there are no guarantees that either will get enough signatures.
Another UCP committee member, Scott Cyr, said the government is ultimately accountable to taxpayers.
NDP members said the government was dodging responsibility, as McClure has no choice but to spend resources on each application under the law.
“They claim that they want these processes to be available there for Albertans. But when it comes down to the actual practice, the actual rub, they don’t want to cut the cheque,” said NDP legislature member David Shepherd.
Opposition NDP deputy leader Rakhi Pancholi said she thinks the recall efforts show how frustrated some Albertans are with the government.
“This is a government that brought in recall legislation, and so Albertans are taking advantage of it,” she said, referring to how the process was brought in under former UCP premier Jason Kenney in 2021.
The application against Nicolaides was the first to be approved since the process was put in place.
McClure’s office later said the committee’s decision was “unexpected and puts us in a challenging position.”
In a letter to the committee following the decision, McClure wrote without the additional funding, it’s likely Elections Alberta will be “unable to execute our mandate and duties prescribed in legislation.”
He asked the committee to reconvene to reconsider his request.
Committee chair Brandon Lunty, a United Conservative member of the legislature, wasn’t immediately able to comment.
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